Hellobee Boards

@mediagirl: wow that would really bother me. Pool safety is my number one concern and I cant stand when people take very casual approach to it. Is there a way you can bring it up before the next class and discuss how you felt about it.

Not to take away from your post but i was recently at a pool party for 5 and 6 year olds and my daughter cant swim but was wearing floatation devices. The party was in a hosts home, she has a pool in her backyard with no fence or gate. the host had a pool slide set up and I asked how deep the water was in the pool. she told me the shallowest parts were 2ft and the deepest was 5ft. my daughter went down the slide and started panicking and struggling and going under the water. DH jumped in fully clothed to get her and he started struggling too! turns out that section of the pool was actually about 10ft and some parts of the pool were even deeper!! DH jumped in thinking it wasnt that deep and was getting sucked under since he had his clothes on! the whole thing was very traumatizing for them both and for me watching them go under. this host saw nothing wrong with it and just laughed the whole thing off, it was her husband who later mentioned that the pool was much deeper than she had initially said. not long after this another girl fell into the pool and also nearly drowned! Very very disturbing behavior for pool owners. people dont realize how easily things can go downhill in a pool

@Mrsbells: wow that is so not okay; especially their dismissive attitude

@mediagirl: Can you start by asking, did you know my daughter almost drowned yesterday, if it wasn't for another nearby instructor that got her?

Was there not a swim test prior to joining swim team? Assuming no (and it was parent evaluation), I would just ask how they evaluate the swimming levels of each child. Can your daughter comfortably swim laps? I would feel different if this was swim lessons, but in my neck of the woods swim team is for competitive swimming so it's sort of assumed that if you sign your child up they are a fairly strong swimmer.

For reference, I did swim team most of my childhood and my son has been in swim lessons since 2. He can swim, but I still would not sign him up for swim team until I felt her was a VERY strong swimmer.

I think you just have to be your child's advocate in this case - it's a lot of kids as well as she arrived late. I'm not saying it's right, but unless my son is in individual lessons (he's done group and individual), I am prepared to jump in the pool. If I said anything I would ask my above question and then say I noticed yesterday my daughter struggling a little and wanted to make sure she was ready for swim team. Accusing your swim coach of almost drowning your child (as a PP suggested) is pretty intense and doesn't exactly endear yourself.

Honestly, I would pull her from the swim team and sign her up for swim lessons instead. If she can't swim the length of the pool unassisted, I don't think swim team is the best spot for her or your goals. Team practices are about improving skills/form rather than learning to swim so I think lessons would probably be a better fit!

I would probably start by saying that I wanted to talk a bit more about what the group was going to do to ensure that kids are properly supported for their levels of ability.

Duplicate.

HB is a hot mess.

AND just realized this was about a swim team thing and not swimming lessons, which is totally different... though I think maybe my advice still applies? Maybe not! Ignore me!

@Mama Bird: @mediagirl: my daughter has been taking swim lessons for 2 years and while I’m happy with the instruction the supervision is lackluster (I recently complained bc the college age lifeguard had ear buds in and was watching a show on his phone). My experience is that parents have to watch their own kids like a hawk.

@Mama Bird: I'm signing DS up for swim lessons that are incoporated into summer camp and it terrifies me. I've told them I plan to come and observe for the first few lessons and I've asked so many questions about how many sets of eyes are on the children at all times! people forget that drowning can happen very quietly

@MrsBells: tell me about it. Summer camp is another can of worms. The pool. The trips out of town, to all kinds of places, in buses with no seat belts (at least, they had no seat belts when I was a kid). I've never wished I could quit my job so badly. We considered doing grandmacare for a couple of weeks, but a couple of recent incidents made it very clear the kid will be safer with some inattentive college kids.

@Mama Bird: for what it is worth and not to totally thread jack but for my 6 y/o her summer program has 15 passenger vans for field trips with seatbelts and boosters and her bus during the school year has seatbelts! I don’t know if it is true where you are but some things have gotten safer!

@mediagirl: this sounds super scary and I would absolutely address it with the coach/person in charge. I think you and your family will have to decide if it is a good fit. I think some of this discussion about pools and supervision comes down to how comfortable your kid is in the water and how much common sense they have. there is a big range on both issues and parents and coaches can’t control all of it.

For us, we live in a warm place where swimming is one of the only sane ways to be outside in the summer and there are tons of pools. I don’t love the water but I can swim, and I wanted my kids to learn to swim as a safety precaution. My DD did two years of lessons and swims with us 6 months out of the year. She has swum in the summer program (shallow pools and high level of supervision—I think 10 kids to 3 adults) and I was fine with it. But she was very comfortable in the water and she is well aware of her limits.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

@mediagirl: That's great to hear! It seems like they took her seriously and also actively made changes without you even stepping in!